Interview: Ashley Force

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We sit down with drag racing/reality-TV star Ashley Force.

By Justin Kaehler

I'm used to waking up at the crack of noon, so it's quite a chore for me to wake up any time before the clock reads "P.M." My brain just doesn't function well in the morning, so any time the clock reads "A.M.", it's incredibly difficult for me to accomplish even basic tasks such as walking, talking or breathing. Trying to conduct an interview with the heir apparent to a racing empire at such an early hour is intimidating for me, to say the least.

Just prior to my trip to SEMA, I sat down for an early-morning interview with Ashley Force. Ashley, as you may or may not know, is the daughter of drag racing legend John Force and is a respected drag racer in her own right. Those of you with cable and/or satellite service will also know that her family has their own reality show on A&E, appropriately called Driving Force.

Ashley was getting ready to head out to the NHRA Powerade Series in Las Vegas - where she coincidentally recorded her fastest ever trap speed in testing - 315 miles per hour and ran the quarter in 4.93 seconds. Ashley was rushing to get ready for this second-to-last race of the season, but she was gracious enough to make some time for me and answer any and all questions my half-asleep self attempted to ask.

IGN Cars: We all know that your dad's racing career is what got you into the whole racing lifestyle, but how did you get into racing itself? Like, how did you go from watching your dad race to getting behind the wheel of a race car?

Ashley Force: Well actually in high school, before I ever did any kind of racing, I took auto shop and I took welding. I got really interested in that side of it, just watching the team guys - like how they tear apart a car after a run - that was blown up - and put it back together and go out and run 300 miles per hour.

So I started taking classes in that, getting familiar with the cars. And then for my 16th birthday, as a surprise, my parents got me a gift certificate to go to a local racing school (Frank Holley's Racing School, which is out in Pomona). So I went there and did the "adventure course", which teaches you all about the Super Comp categories, about the insides of a car, the race track and the starting line - a lot of stuff I already knew because of grew I up with the races. But a lot of the other people in the class didn't understand all the dynamics of it.

So I went back again when I was 18 and that's when I went through the main course and got licensed, and shortly after that started competing. I got my own Super Comp car and started competing.

IGN: What kinds of challenges did you find yourself facing once you started racing professionally?

Ashley: Well, I didn't jump right into the world that we're in now and everything. I started slow in Super Comp, I did local events here on the West Coast, and kind of got used to just the driving part of it. What I'm learning now is that it's such a small part of the job - racing the car - the bigger part of it is the media, the fans, the sponsors and all that part of it. But when I started, I wasn't involved with any of that stuff. I started to get some fans, mostly fans of my dad that we like, "Oh, he has a daughter that's racing," and then got a few interviews.

That was probably the hardest part for me, because I'm pretty shy. I'm not as shy as I used to be - especially after the reality show. But back then, I remember my first weekend - it was actually the night before I ever raced in competition. It was my first race, and I had a newspaper interview and I remember I was so upset, crying to my mom... My mom was like, "She (the interviewer) is just going to ask you some questions and you just answer back." I mean I was so intimidated about that, that it made the driving part just a blast for me. I mean, I was still new to it and I didn't understand everything about it, but every run I felt safe and it was fun for me.

It was a slow progression. There was no big problem. Probably the hardest thing I faced (back then) was I was in college, so trying to balance (racing) and do my school work. Mandy would come pick me up from school Thursday, right after class, take me to the airport, fly out to a race... That got a little tricky, but we kind of got to find that balance. My teachers, they all understood that I wasn't just leaving to go party. I really was going to do something.

I graduated college about two weeks before I moved into the category I'm in now - the "A" Field Dragster. I'm really glad I did that, because I don't think I could've done both in that category. There's just a lot more going on.